TDDavis' Li'l Projects thread - New Shader I learned - 1/29/2018

Comments

Okay, I have been working on that asteroid field shot and I think I have it rendered much better. I also used it in a shot showing the Jupiter 2 interior as it enters the field which I am not 100% happy with yet. Again, the J2 interior model here is by Al Dinelt (aka Tralfaz)

On your asteroid field you've got some nice movement going on. You could also consider thinking about making one "hero" asteroid that tumbles by in front of the camera. You can hand animate that one. Also the color variations are still a little much for my taste. In my mind I see them all as varying shades of gray with slight color tints.

For your interior shot, consider pushing in with the camera toward the window, just to give the scene a little more movement and to pull the eye toward the tumbling asteroids scene. You can either do that by simply scaling the whole scene as an embedded comp or make the image a 3D plane that the camera can then do a move on. Adding a vignette to your camera can give a little more depth to the shot, as well.

@GrayMotion You are right about the location of the belt. I wasn't sure how big Saturn would be or how big to make my Jupiter from the belt either so I just made it smaller than the Jupiter until I could figure out those sizes (and if they would even be visible at all! ) I went through and changed my colors on the textures already at the suggestion from @Stargazer54 but that photo is good resource. Thanks. I do think the all gray looks kind of boring though and I do see one has a bit of brownish to it. I did push in the camera as well. Still have yet to re render the Blender field, I'll try to bump up the sizes of the particle field a bit. Ideally, I would like to have two emitter using different groups of rocks for subjects. And Stargazer54 I was sort of thinking the main big 7 rocks were my heroes cause they have to full displacement texture, but I'm going to switch to an outer shot of the J2 flying over and around some so I can make another for that to be the real hero rock.

@GrayMotion to be pedantic, the actual asteroid belt is mostly small rocks seperated by tens or hundreds of thousands of kilometers. For "realism" we'd just see one lonely rock...

Tddavis the color variation is also a little much for me. My suggestion would be to reduce saturation in the brown rocks by, maybe, 60-70%. Enough to keep the variation, not so much to read as a mismatch.

Playing with HF 2017 (First time Export Queue was a real education!!!) I used inScapeDigitals recent preset and a model of the Seaview created by Herminio Nieves @2013 that I downloaded free from CGTrader:

Third attempt with the new Hitfilm 2017. I have learned a number of things I never knew before on this with a couple of bits of wisdom from inScapeDigital the creator of the recent tutorial/preset for the background and a free model created by Herminio Nieves @2013. I was able to add a shadow to floor and another angle and for the first I learned about moving composite shots into the editor to render all in one instead of render each composite and then importing back into Hitfilm like I had been doing. Radically changed my workflow! Also, I was adding sound and other effects in Pinnacle Studio but did it all in Hitfilm this time.

Very nice - got me back into the series like when I was a yonker:) I was fully expecting to see the odd bubble rise from the side/underneath and slight streams of bubbles coming from the props and rising to the surface!

I remember building a plastic model of the Seaview...no flying sub with it though

dplester I thought about the bubbles but figured that would be a whole 'nother lesson! That and getting the lights to work right. I have a flying sub model from the same person but there again that's biting off more than I can chew at the moment.

@Triem23 Yes, they are both separate materials. I tried to do that trick with duplicating the model and "turning off" everything but those materials but I can't even get those to show the yellow emissive color I set it up for?? Don't know what I am doing wrong.

As Treim23 mentioned you will need to use planes as deflectors. It really sucks you can't use the actual model or even a simplified version for the deflector. I wound up having to use 4 small planes to simulate a rough curve for the J2 to push crash debris. Very cumbersome, but once you have it set up, it really works well.

@Stargazer54 Yes, your particles on that looked really good. That's the part there that kept me from getting that shot done, and most likely will be the sticking point on bubbles here. Was just looking at images of the Seaview and noticed some differences and am wondering if I can Blender the changes I would like to make. It all started by separating the Light from 1 material to several so I can animate them with volumetrics and not make it all glow. Then I remembered there were taillights and when I looked at photos I saw the model was different in the back *sigh* Now it bugs me. Did find a cool photo of the breach though to shoot for.

@tddavis My advice when working with the particle system to not try to do the shot in all one go. Break off a test comp and just work on getting the movement and collisions worked out on a smaller scale without the model. Once you figure out which knobs to twirl, then build on that.

Besides watching the tutorials, there is no magic bullet. You just have to invest the time into working the problem. Again, just pick a small piece with one deflector and build from there.

Also, take good notes. I can't tell you how many times I've fiddled and fiddled and get a good look I was after and then forget to either save that version or write down critical settings.

I know this isn't a Hitfilm question but tangentially related to my last little project: Seaview meshes. I have scoured the internet for an accurate Seaview model and of the two free ones I have found while they are quite close they just don't have the level of detail I'm wanting to play with, and I haven't been able to find one to purchase anywhere. I am thinking about trying to commission one to be made since I do NOT have the modeling skill to even begin on one. I tried some photogrammertry software using my 13" model and couldn't get anywhere. Question I am wondering is, does anyone know or can hazard a guess what such a project would run in rough dollar figures? I am considering buying a huge 1 meter model kit and the light kit for it and just shooting some green screen background camera moves and such and different angles and importing them into scenes and adding particles and lights and such, but if I could get a digital model for around the same amount of that there would be more versatility that way. Thanks for any and all responses or suggestions.

I'll assume you already have tons of reference material for the modeler, and that would save time. It's possible it might be faster to pass off one of the models you already have to kitbash more details onto?

Depending on the needed details it might be something bump or normal maps can handle, which is faster and easier than geometry.

@Tried 23 Thanks. I appreciate it. I tried kit bashing as you say but even that was beyond my skill level. The geometry is where the problem is on them. The tail is all wrong on one and the belly is wrong on the other. I just couldn't make a go of the changes. I have collected quite a few references. And really, I don't need the detail, I'm just anal that way